This recipe was made by good friend Sandee Van Alstine. She lives in El Paso and won a contest for this delightful dessert.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 lb. French bread, at least 2 days old
- 2/3 tsp. mace
- 2 2/3 cups sugar
- 5 1/3 cup milk
- 4 T sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 cup raisins
DIRECTIONS
Slice bread into ½ inch slices. Set aside ¼ lb. best-looking slices for pudding topping.
In large bowl mix together eggs, mace, cinnamon, 2 2/3 cups sugar, vanilla and milk. Measure out 2 1/3 cups of this liquid, set aside. Place ¾ lb. of bread slices into remaining liquid. Add ¾ cup raisins. Soak 15 minutes, tossing occasionally. Bread must be completely saturated. Loosely place soaked bread and raisins mixture in lightly greased 9 x 13 x 2 ½ pan. Do not pack down. Pour any liquid remaining in bowl over this mixture.
Place reserved bread in large mixing bowl with 2 cups of the 2 1/3 cups reserved liquid. Soak for 5 minutes. Carefully lay soggy bread on top of bread and raisin mixture in baking pan. Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup raisins over top and push them ½ inch into the top of the bread with your fingers. Pour any remaining liquid over bread. Back in preheated 300° F oven about 1 to 1 ½ hours until lightly golden brown or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Remove from oven.
Brush with remaining 1/3 cup liquid and sprinkle with 4 T sugar. Return to oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on rack. Serve in a bowl with bourbon sauce on top. Pudding is better when warmed in microwave before adding topping.
Bourbon Sauce
INGREDIENTS
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup Jim Beam bourbon
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 cups sour cream
DIRECTIONS
Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the sugar and bourbon. Be very careful if cooking with a gas stove to avoid spilling the alcohol. Stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Fold mixture into sour cream. When sauce is well blended, store in fridge.
Sandee prefers this recipe served with the pudding warmed and the sauce cold. Her daughter Taelor prefers all of it chilled. Douglas, her husband, doesn’t care. He eats it no matter what. In the competition at the El Paso restaurant, Capetto’s, Sandee served it the way she likes it, and won a trip to Las Vegas. As a bonus, the dessert was served in the restaurant for the month of December 1990. Sadly, this El Paso institution closed in 2012 after 56 years in business.
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